To fight the Corps
by Astaria zen Esperansa
Summary: Jenny's girlfriend Yasmin was forced to join the corps years ago. Now Jenny is determined to find her. But even if she can be found will Yasmin want anything to do with the girl she used to love? Being re-written. Please give it a try; I think it's better
1. Chapter 1

**Yasmin**

"It's got to be done."Yasmin's voice echoed through the empty room. Final, determined, like she was informing a friend of a vital decision. "I'll wait for the psi cops here. It won't be long; tomorrow, maybe even late tonight. I should see Jenny, though, before I go. I owe her that much." She smiled, a sad, tight little smile, at the thought of Jenny, her girlfriend. Jenny meant more to her than the she'd ever be prepared to tell the other girl. But, depending on how you looked at it, she was going to dump her.

It was just after she lost her parents that she'd first met Jenny. She'd come close to just moving on, like she'd done so many times before, avoiding psi corps. She'd spent her whole life running; moving every few weeks, sleeping rough, begging, stealing, whatever it took. Anything to avoid psi corps. But after all the effort, freedom seemed to cost too much. She'd began to wonder; is it worth it? I'll be caught in the end; I know that now. Why go to all this trouble? Why not just settle down here, live a bit before they catch me? It won't change anything, not in the long run.

So that's what I did. I got myself a job, washing dishes. Even enrolled for some evening classes. I was starting to take it all for granted enough to make plans for permanence. I knew it couldn't last really, but I still hoped.

Telling Jenny the truth for the first time was tough. I think she understands. Or maybe I just hope she does. What's the difference? I told her the psi cops are coming for me. That today or tomorrow they'll arrive and take me away. I love her so much; I think my heart tore in two when I said goodbye. I don't think she'll forgive me for what I said. "I hope we never meet again; I don't want you to see the person psi corps will turn me into."

She turned away, tears falling fast down her cheeks, wetting her hair. She's got such beautiful hair. Flame red, falling in cascades down her shoulders; soft and shiny, curling in ringlets. When I first saw her I thought she'd be fierce and hot-tempered, but she's not. She's calm, and patient, and caring; and she probably hates me now. I can't blame her;I'd hate me. So I simply looked at her, pleadingly.

"Will you do me a favour?" She stared at me like I gone out of my mind. "Remember this, what the psi corps did to me…did to us. They won't let me remember. They'll make love them; even trust them, eventually, whether or not I want to. Whatever happens, whatever they do to me, it'll be better than always running. So I'll let them take me. But people should know; someone should remember what the psi corps really is, what it does to people. Please? For me?"

She looked me in the eyes, and my heart almost melted. Those sea-green eyes pushed past every barrier, right to my heart. Making me feel all the pain and love and misery afresh.

"I'll remember. Always." She choked back tears, her voice harsh and rasping. Finally, I broke away.

"I've got to go. I won't let them find me here, with you." My voice faltered and cracked. "I love you too much to let them near you. Goodbye, Jen."

"Go!" She shouted, crying in earnest again. "Just go!" So I walked away. There were no final endearments or promises of undying love. Life will go on. She'll have other girlfriends; maybe even boyfriends. It was my choice, but that doesn't stop it hurting.

I came here to wait for them, the psi cops who've found me. They'll be here soon. My resolve's shaking, but I've made up my mind. I won't run, I won't hide; I'll let them find me. Let them turn my mind inside out. 'Cause I'm not running, not ever again. And you can't fight a psi cop.

--

They found me at last in the cold of the pre-dawn hours. Three cops in their black uniforms. Detached. Impersonal. But not cruel. They were gentle; tapping lightly on the walls of my mind. When they felt my fear they stopped sending to me and talked instead. Asked me question after question for several long, slow, painful hours.

I answered them all; secrets I'd kept since I lost my parents. What choice had I left myself?

They told me I was with my family now; that the corps was my mother and my father. 'You're safe now,' they told me. 'We look after our own.'

I was given a test, almost as soon as I arrived. I'm a P6 teep. That means I'm strong enough to manage basic scans, but my powers are nothing special. They've given me the gloves and badge; thought I'd hate wearing them but I don't really care. Don't really care about anything these days.

I've got a job, going round schools telling kids how wonderful the corps is. Can't decide how I feel about it. Part of me says the corps will get them in the end regardless, so they might as well save themselves the pain and join up. The other part says I died the day I joined the corps. They should stay away as long as they can, have a life before it's taken away.

My body, that's still alive, still here. But the rest…heart, soul, spirit; whatever you call it. That stayed behind. Stayed with Jenny. Stayed free. What was left of it; the small part not already killed by years of running and hiding.

Maybe I'm being a fool. Psi Corps has been good to me. Given me everything I need for to live out my life, happy and well.

I think they really mean it when they say they love me.

--

I hope Jenny remembers; I'm already forgetting. They almost have me. If you say something often enough, you start believing it. I knew this would happen; it happens to everyone who joins the corps. But I didn't believe it. No one ever does.

--

In the end I saw the truth, but it took time. I didn't want to see it; I didn't want my parents to have been wrong. I wanted to truly believe they were martyrs; I wanted to blame the corps for their deaths. I wanted to have something to fight; something that was responsible for all my pain. But there wasn't anything. Just the love of my family.

Precious years of my life wasted hating people who only wanted to help me. I should have realised that earlier, but I was blinded. Blinded by the misconceptions of others. I ruined myself, with that stupid stubbornness. I could've been happy here. I could've made psi corps the constant in my life; the one thing that will never betray me.

I still could. They're my _family_. They'd give me a second chance. They'd always give me another chance to rejoin them. But it's up to me to take them up; it's up to me to love them in return.

And I think I do at last. After all; The corps is mother, The corps is father.


	2. Chapter 2

Jenny

**Jenny**

I'm moving on, Jenny told herself. She'd been telling herself that for two years; ever since Yasmin left. When she returned to school. When she went for job interviews. Worked for promotions. Bought a flat.

I'm not in love with Yasmin any more, I'm really not. I just worry about her. I can't stop caring. Sometimes I wish I could; I'm never going to see her again. I know that.

I want to move on. But at the back of every conversation; through every friendship, Yasmin's ghost sits beside me. There's no one I can tell about her and me. There's no one I trust enough for that. There's no one I trust how I trusted Yasmin. It's laughable; the one person I could ever trust lied to me constantly.

This is stupid. I don't believe in 'true love', never have. I doubt we'd still be together anyway. We were fourteen! It was probably ninety percent hormones; for all I know we'd hate each other if we met now. It was a long time ago.

You wouldn't want me to come after you. You wanted a clean break. Fair enough. I just wonder if you even considered how much it hurt me, or if you acted on impulse, like a scared child.

Please, please be alright. Please forgive me for not noticing. You were falling to pieces before my very eyes and I saw nothing wrong. Why did you leave it so long to tell me? Didn't you trust me? Do you still love me, Yasmin? Do you think of me?

Never forget. You said they'd make you forget, but you can't let them. You can't let them take something that important away from you.

I'm not in love with her anymore. Truly, I'm not.

Oh God, Yasmin, _please _get in touch. You know how I worry…


	3. Chapter 3

**Jenny**

Jenny scowled fiercely at the empty room. She'd been doing a lot of that lately. Most of her friends and family had come up with their own personal theory, but none knew the truth.

Things had gone steadily down hill as year by year no news came. And year by year she hoped on; more wildly, more desperately. And now she was close to breaking point; tense, uncertain, never relaxed. Unable to make friends or mingle with people. Lost in a world of her own.

Until she gave up waiting. It wasn't what Yasmin wanted, but she was past caring. She was going to start searching for her love, and not stop until she found her. But she knew were her search had to start, and the thought of it made her blood run cold. Psi Corps records. But that meant finding a MetaPol station and talking to the Psi Cops. She knew she couldn't do it. On their last evening she'd picked up Yasmin's fear of them; intense and unstoppable. Any telepath would be able to feel her hatred, her fear, her love for Yasmin. Maybe even Yasmin's reluctance to join up.

It was her one hope, though, so she took it.

---

The walls in there are so bare; and the Psis were everywhere, and the uniforms. The black Psi Corp uniforms.

Why the hell am I so scared? I never had anything against Psi Corps until a couple of years ago. They won't hurt me; I'm a normal. It'd leak out, and they can't afford that.

Unless they cover it up.

Taking a deep breath I tried to relaxed, pushing those thoughts out of my mind.

A young woman in a black Psi Cop's uniform walked over. If she'd read my mind she gave no sign of it. Her hair was scraped back into a tight pony tail; her very walk radiated confidence and power.

"Is there a problem?" she asked in a detached tone of voice, riddled with scarcely concealed contempt.

"I'm looking for a friend of mine. A telepath. She joined Psi Corp a few years ago, and never got back in contact."

My voice was quiet, but steady. I tried to keep everything important from my thoughts. Yasmin's feelings about Psi Corp; how she'd run from them; that we were lovers. I did _not_ trust them to keep out of my mind.

"We usually allow our members to have a fresh start when they join. We don't like to bother them with past. But if you can give me your friend's name, her rating, and the exact date she joined the corp I'll see what I can do."

"I don't know her full name, or her rating. I never asked; she was always just Yasmin. And I think she joined up about three years ago."

"You've not given me much. I doubt I can find her with that little information. How old was she? Was she a later? Where exactly did she join up?" Came the brusque response. Not cruel, or even particularly unkind, but irritated.

"I don't know much." I sighed, placing all my trust in this stranger. "She was on the run, avoiding the Psi Cops. She got caught in this city, three years ago today."

"I could find her with that, I think. But I'm afraid you won't be allowed contact, not if she's been on the run before now. It's too dangerous." I was given a sympathetic nod. I could see a trace of apology in her bearing.

"She'd never hurt me!" I cried. I an moment of desperation, I practically shouted my thoughts at the cop. I'm not a teep; I don't choose who hears my thoughts, but I've learnt to control how loud they are. A little. I projected my absolute trust in Yasmin, my pain, and my love through the room.

"I can take a message." The young cop conceded nervously. "If you write a letter and leave it in an unsealed envelope, I'll make sure it gets through."

"I want to see her!" I shouted, my self-control shattering.

"That's not possible."

"Tell me where she is!"

"I'm going to have to ask you to leave." She murmured reluctantly, wearily.

"But…"

"If you won't leave of your own accord, I will have you escorted out." There was a snap to her voice. It became certain, dignified, and condescending again. "You can save your dignity if you like."

"I'm not going without answers." My voice grew dangerous. Quiet but filled with pure rage.

"This is you last warning. I did not have to talk to you at all; Psi Corps policy is not to allow normals in. This is a private space for telepaths." Such a level voice. So controlled, so free from any detectable emotion.

"Please…" my voice dropped to a whisper, "Please. I love her; don't do this to me."

"I am truly sorry for your loss. Go, now, and I'll make sure this is wiped from the records." The glimpse of emotion that had crossed her voice and face, a rare display in a psi cop, was gone again. She continued firmly, "Don't come back here. Others wouldn't be as lenient as me."

So I went, my heart breaking into a thousand pieces. One path was shut; Psi Corps wouldn't help me. That much was clear.

So I turned elsewhere for help. I turned to people I'd never have gone near otherwise. The Underground.


	4. Chapter 4

**Jenny**

At last, things are going right. The Underground didn't want to take me at first. I'm just a mundane, you see. A liability. But I told them about Yasmin, and they said they'd consider me.

I'm not trusted. The looks they send me are like death. But I can't blame them. Look at we've done to them. We shunned them, pushed them out of society. EarthGov must know what Psi Corp does; hundreds of people must know. Thousands even.

And we ignore it. We've let them be imprisoned, tortured, anything. Because we're too scared of them.

And it's rebel telepaths paying the price for the peace of mind of paranoid normals. Some of them are children. And they're dying. Being shot by Psi Cops, or sent to re-education camps. Or just shrivelling up inside from all the things they've seen.

I smuggle supplies- and other things- for them. They make phone calls from my house.

Over the last few months I've shared my rooms with various fugitives from the law. I never know who they are, what they're running from or where they're going. It's too risky; if Psi Corps got their hands on me they'll find out everything I know.

So I've seen their hope. Their joy. Seen their children laughing and playing games. The kids come here to make a noise. Or so they don't see some of the things that happen in the hideouts. Whenever the Underground catches a Psi Cop or a Bloodhound the children come here. So they don't see what happens next.

I've never asked what it is that they do. I don't want to know

In return, they look for Yasmin. Most of them have had friends taken by the Corps; they know how it feels. But none of them have been as helpless as I am. A normal in the teeps world, any of them could crush me if they pleased. I am weak where they are strong.

I don't belong here.

There are people who would call me a traitor, but in spite of everything, I'm glad. Glad I'm here, fighting with them. Glad that I can make a difference. Glad that these people will remember a normal who tried to help them. A normal who understood that they're human beings too.

People say there can never be lasting trust and friendship between normals and telepaths. That we are destined to hate, oppress, and enslave each other. But I am here to prove the lie. I am here demonstrating my trust. I am here sacrificing myself for their freedom.

I'm here for Yasmin, everything I do here is in her name. But now I've understand what this is all about I'm here for an ideal, too. Even if I can't save Yasmin, this won't have been in vain.


End file.
